Unai Emery insists he wanted this proven Premier League star over expensive flop Nicolas Pepe

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It must be tough for a football manager when they are sacked from a big job, and it becomes an exercise in trying to maintain their reputation.

The club who does the sacking will insist everything is perfect and they just needed a new manager, while the recently sacked boss needs to show that they were up against it and it wasn’t their fault.

The Daily Mail recently reported on some comments from Unai Emery, and it’s clear he’s happy to point the finger at everyone but himself.

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He talks about losing some of his best players while also blaming Mesut Ozil for his antics, but the signing of Nicolas Pepe seems to be a sore one.

The Ivorian looks like a decent player, but he’s not lived up to his price tag and Emery admits that he was unproven and raw.

The Spaniard goes on to insist that he actually wanted to sign Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace instead, because of his experience in the league and his proven ability to win games.

Time will tell if Pepe turns out to be a good signing and it’s a push to say that Emery would still be in the job if Zaha had signed instead, but it’s no wonder results were so poor if he didn’t even want some of his players.

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